This content was posted on Jun 26, 2023 – 4:43pm. Jun 26, 2023 – 4:43 p.m
Luxembourg, 26 June (EFE). – Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares hoped this Monday that the summit between the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) would give “a boost” during the Spanish EU Presidency, which begins on January 1. July begins working to place Latin America “in the heart of Europe.”
“I reiterated the importance of this summit, which will be the political starting point for our relations with Latin America this semester (the presidency) and the impetus for the work that will last throughout the semester of our presidency. bringing Latin America back to the heart of Europe,” he said.
He added during a press conference following the EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg today that this work “must go beyond the Spanish Presidency”.
“I proposed that we hold these high-level meetings regularly and I indicated that we must not miss this opportunity to strengthen the bi-regional political agenda, all the more so in this context where Europe needs to stand together with its partners more than ever “Friends and allies in the world,” he explained.
He stressed that the “credibility of the EU in the world” was “at stake”.
“I am convinced that the European Union-CELAC Summit will create momentum in our European Semester that we will see clearly when it concludes in December. It will be a success with very concrete results to be announced throughout the semester,” he revealed.
Albares pointed out that all his counterparts from the 27 countries spoke today “without exception” about the “huge importance” of the EU-CELAC summit that will take place in Brussels on July 17-18, “the first of its kind “, agree in almost ten years.”
He added that most ministers had expressed that their countries would be represented at the summit “by their head of state or government”.
On the other hand, he pointed out that Sweden, the country that currently holds the presidency of the Council of the EU, already today, in a purely solemn act, “handed over the baton” to Spain, since the meetings of the Union’s foreign ministers took place differently than any other Others would be led by the chief of community diplomacy, Josep Borrell, and not by the community state, which holds the rotating presidency.
“We had a ceremony and took advantage of a moment of calm where the baton with the European flag was physically handed over to us,” Albares said. EFE
Pitcher/Cat/Psh
(Photo)
© EFE 2023. The redistribution of all or part of the content of the Efe Services is expressly prohibited without the prior and express consent of Agencia EFE SA